Greenpeace says brands refusing to reveal palm oil sources

FILE - In this Sept. 29, 2012, file photo, a man pushes his motorbike at a palm oil plantation in Nagan Raya, Aceh province, Indonesia. Greenpeace said Monday, March 19, 2018 household brands including PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson are refusing to disclose where they get their palm oil from despite vows to stop buying from companies that cut down tropical forests to grow the widely used commodity. The environmental group said that in January it asked 16 major brands to reveal their suppliers of palm oil, which is mainly grown in Indonesia and Malaysia and used in a slew of consumer products from snacks to cosmetics. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara, File)

JAKARTA, Indonesia — Greenpeace says several major household brands including Hershey and Johnson & Johnson have failed to disclose where they get their palm oil from despite vows to stop buying from companies that cut down tropical forests to grow the widely used commodity.

The environmental group said Monday that in January it asked 16 major brands to reveal their suppliers of palm oil, which is mainly grown in Indonesia and Malaysia and used in a slew of consumer products from snacks to cosmetics. It said eight disclosed the information and eight refused.

Greenpeace said that adds to concerns international consumer goods companies are "way off track" in meeting a 2010 commitment to remove deforestation-linked palm oil from their supply chains by 2020.

"Corporate commitments and polices have proliferated, but companies have largely failed to implement them," it said.

Colgate-Palmolive, General Mills, Mars, Mondelez, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever agreed to publicly disclose the mills that produce the palm oil they buy and the names of groups that control the mills. Ferrero, Hershey, Kellogg's, Kraft Heinz, Johnson & Johnson, PepsiCo, PZ Cussons and Smucker had not provided the information, according to Greenpeace.

PepsiCo said in a statement Monday that a list of the mills that make the palm oil it uses would be released "in the coming days."